Galileo (Ire)

Champion and MG1SW Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}-Halfway to Heaven {Ire}, by Pivotal {GB}) has been retired, Coolmore announced via Twitter on Tuesday. She will join the Coolmore broodmare band, but a 2021 stallion has not been decided upon. In her latest start, the 5-year-old finished third in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup on Dec. 13 for trainer Aidan O'Brien. "Brilliant seven-time Group 1 winner Magical (Galileo) has been retired and will join the broodmare band at Coolmore Stud," the tweet read. "Mating Plans [are] yet to be decided." Bred...

A new direction in the extraordinary odyssey of the Japanese mare Deirdre (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}-Reizend {Jpn, by Special Week {Jpn}) began on Monday when the 6-year-old left her adopted home of Newmarket to begin her stud career in Ireland. Her first mating is planned to be with Coolmore's champion sire Galileo (Ire). Bred by Northern Farm and raced by Toji Morita, Deirdre's first three seasons of racing were restricted largely to Japan, where she won five races, including the G1 Shuka Sho. She also took third in the G1 Dubai...

Indianapolis (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a former Ballydoyle incumbent most recently under the care of James Given, topped proceedings during the single session Goffs UK December HIT Sale on Friday when selling to Ian Williams and Richard Ryan for £52,000 as lot 24. The 3-year-old Indianapolis last won in October of 2019, but was twice placed in one mile six furlongs handicaps this year. The entire is out of the dual Grade I winner Adoration (Honor Grades). David Elsworth's Egerton House Stables offered the 6-year-old gelding Dash Of Spice (GB) (Teofilo...

Now I do realise that I am in a minority of one here. But while everyone else seems to perceive some unique alchemy between Galileo (Ire) and Danehill, to me the number of good horses obtained by that cross is pretty much as you should expect when one breed-shaping stallion is mated with the daughters of another. After all, their dams will in turn have been well-bred and/or accomplished runners, simply to have gained access to an elite sire. If we call this "selective breeding", we are surely flattering ourselves....

Wootton Bassett (GB), one of four new sires on the Coolmore roster for 2021, will stand for €100,000 off a glittering season on the track that saw him sire two new Group 1 winners and 10 stakes winners. Coolmore announced its purchase of Wootton Bassett in June from Haras d'Etreham, where the son of Iffraaj had stood since retiring to stud in 2012. After standing for as low as €4,000 in his third season, Wootton Bassett had been priced at €40,000 the past two seasons. Just a week after the...

Multiple Group 1 winner Circus Maximus (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}-Duntle {Ire}, by Danehill Dancer {Ire}) will stand at Coolmore Stud in Ireland next year for €20,000. The French highweight is under consideration for the Longines Hong Kong International Races in December for the Coolmore partners and Flaxman Holdings. The winner of the G1 St. James's Palace S. and second in the G1 Sussex S. in the summer of his 3-year-old year, the Niarchos Family's Flaxman homebred added another Group 1 win in the Prix du Moulin that September prior to a...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wednesday's Insights features a half-sister to MG1SW Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). 5.35 Kempton, Nov, £6,300, 2yo, f, 8f (AWT) Khalid Abdullah's MAYTAL (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) is kin to four black-type performers, headed by MG1SW distaffer Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), and faces one dozen rivals in...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Friday's Insights features a half-brother to Garswood (GB). 12.15 Curragh, Mdn, €16,500, 2yo, f, 8fT Coolmore and Westerberg's FRILL (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is a half-sister to G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest-winning sire Garswood (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) and one of three representing Aidan O'Brien in this debut. The 900,000gns...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Monday's Observations features a full-sister to Gleneagles (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) et al. 12.30 Curragh, Mdn, €16,500, 2yo, f, 7fT Coolmore's hitherto unraced JOAN OF ARC (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is one of two nominees set to carry the Derrick Smith colours for Aidan O'Brien and faces 16 rivals in this...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Sunday's Insights features a full-brother to G1SW Serpentine (Ire). 12.30 Naas, Mdn, €15,500, 2yo, 6fT Coolmore's debutant APOLLO THIRTEEN (IRE) (No Nay Never), one of three nominees representing the Aidan O'Brien stable, is out of the dual Grade I placegetter Nasty Storm (Gulch) and thus a half-brother to MGSW...

Sovereign (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the 2019 G1 Irish Derby hero for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners, is a late supplement to the 2000-metre £500,000 Bahrain International Trophy on Nov. 20, the Rashid Equestrian & Horseracing Club announced on Wednesday. Also second in this term's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO S., Sovereign will be O'Brien's first Bahraini runner. "Sovereign is a strong mile and a quarter horse," O'Brien told the Rashid Equestrian & Horseracing Club notes team. (Click here to view the interview.) "He is a very...

NEWMARKET, UK--It's a conundrum of the training profession: do you serve your client better by exhausting every last ounce of a horse's potential, or by preserving a degree of residual value when the time has come to cash out and restock? You see exemplary operators at both ends of that spectrum, but only rarely does anyone manage to reconcile both obligations as expertly as William Haggas did with his principal draft on the second day of the Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale at Tattersalls. Of 17 Somerville Lodge horses into the ring,...